Association of Tanzanian Employers (ATE).
However, experts have claimed that it is not about the universal
programme among the fields of studies in the higher learning
institutions that keeps local graduates at bay, but rather the command
of English language.
Economist from the Association of Tanzanian Employers (ATE) Labour
Service Oscar Mkude has told The Guardian in Dar es Salaam that poor
command of English language among Tanzanian graduates prompts employers
into outsourcing qualified professionals overseas.
Mkude said fresh graduates are ill-reputed for having no confidence
in themselves and for lack of innovative and creative skills in facing
the turbulent market and that they need to be pushed and kept under
constant supervision while they do not deliver to market expectations.
“Tanzanian graduates are good at theories, but weak in practice
especially in areas of marketing and advertising, information
technology, communication and hotel management,” he said.
The study conducted by the Inter-University Council for East Africa
(IUCEA) and the East African Business Council (EABC) to establish
employers’ perceptions on graduates in the East African Region shows
that more than 50 per cent of graduates are half-baked as they lack
basic workplace proficiencies.
This means that university students are graduating without
attaining basic and technical skills required in the job market, denying
the five East African Community (EAC) economies the quality human
capital needed to grow.
Executive Secretary of Inter-University Council for East Africa
(IUCEA) Prof Mayunga Nkunya said during an EAC Higher Education Quality
Assurance Forum in Arusha recently that universities in the Region were
producing a theoretical, unskilled and unpractical labour force.
According to him, employers had been complaining that graduates
lack self-confidence at work and that they are too weak to translate the
knowledge they obtain from universities into practical experience,
awaiting instructions over what to do.
He said Uganda is the worst among the peers, with only 37 per cent
of its graduates fit for the job market, while Tanzania has 39 per cent
of its degree holders rated as competent.
Comparatively, 45 per cent and 48 per cent of graduates in Burundi
and Rwanda respectively, are competent for the job market. Kenya has
the best-rated graduates, with 49 per cent found up to the task.
However, experts also argue that job opportunities are marred with
discrimination, favouritism and relations and not just qualifications
and competence.
The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) of the University of Dar es
Salaam (UDSM) Prof Florens Luoga said it was not true that Tanzanian
graduates are incompetent because some employers look into candidates’
place of origin and ethnicity to qualify for jobs.
“Pointing at Tanzania graduates as incompetent is an insult. There
is an attitude among employers that Kenyans and Ugandans are competent
because of the language,” he said adding, “we must rectify this trend”.
Prof Luoga said there is ethnic bias in most Kenyan and Ugandan
companies operating in the country and it is rare for Tanzanian
graduates to be employed in such companies.
“Job market in the country has the ‘blanket condemnation’, an
inferior perception of incompetence towards Tanzanian graduates,” he
said.
According to him, employers are also reluctant to give room for
undergraduates’ practical training, thus making most graduates to be
overloaded with theoretical knowledge upon graduating.
“We are all born with differing understanding capacity. It is
obvious to find both competent and incompetence graduates everywhere in
the world,” he said.
In 2012, Kampala International University (KIU), Dar es Salaam
campus was allegedly accused of favouring Ugandans for jobs with figures
indicating that 80percent of its staff members were from Uganda while
Tanzania and Kenya equally shared the remaining 20 percent, a claim that
was refuted by its marketing department.
Susan John, a Secondary School teacher in the city said lack of
employment in the country is inevitable especially with the integration
processes of EAC, Southern African Development Community (SADC) and
Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) countries.
“Tanzanian graduates need to shift from their local perception of the market to global outlook,” she said.
However, Ms John said there is a need to look at the root of
employment challenges from the primary level over how pupils are taught
instead of jumping to conclusions.
“We should put more emphasis on practical training than in theory
in our teachings. The problem starts at the primary level and if not
rectified the country will continue to produce incompetent graduates,”
she insisted.
However, the Executive Secretary of Tanzania Commission for
Universities (TCU), Prof Yunus Mgaya said lack of confidence among
Tanzanian graduates is a great concern when it comes to employment
opportunities.
“Most graduates lack confident due to poor command of English, an
official business language, failing them in job interviews,” he said.
Prof Mgaya told the Guardian that local fresh graduates also lacked
current affairs in their fields of speciality and the country at large,
an aspect that puts them at bay in the job market.
“Tanzanian fresh graduates - Form IV and Form VI leavers are
knowledgeable enough about their areas of theoretical studies but lack
confidence in themselves when it comes to practical experience.
We need an effective mechanism that will emphasise on the use of English language as a medium of instruction.”
According to Dr Halifa Kondo, a lecturer of Mass Communication at
the Open University of Tanzania, incompetent lecturers also produce
incompetent graduates.
“Lecturers fail to groom undergraduates into qualified
professionals. The government needs to look into the modalities of
sourcing for lecturers and staffing sufficiency in both public and
private higher learning institutions,” he said.
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